Deol and Tryon help Warriorz to open their account for the season to consign MI to their second loss in four games.
Deol and Tryon power Warriorz to first win of season.
In a thrilling victory over the reigning champions Mumbai Indians (MI), a motivated UP Warriorz (UPW) team gave their WPL 2026 campaign a boost by gaining their first points of the competition. Despite playing consecutive games, UPW showed up with a new strategy to give MI their second defeat in four games.
Although Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 65 took MI to 161, UPW’s pace bowlers dominated the powerplay, their spinners briefly stifled MI’s hitters, and Harleen Deol led the UPW chase with an undefeated 64 off 39 balls, just 24 hours after she had been controversially retired out.
MI chose to pair Amanjot Kaur with G Kamalini at the top after Amelia Kerr struggled to begin the batting in the first two games, but that strategy also failed. The openers continued to edge and miss in the powerplay of 32 runs, the second-lowest in the WPL without losing a wicket, as Kranti Gaud and Shikha Pandey continued to swing the new ball away from them.
Amanjot was dismissed for 38 off 33, while Kamalini’s nightmare ended on 5 off 12, as Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone quickly had the openers holing out in consecutive overs.
Then, Deepti and Ecclestone spun and looped the ball so slowly that even the seasoned pair of Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur were unable to put it away. After the halfway point, the two began to open up when Harmanpreet smashed a huge six off Asha Sobhana in the thirteenth over and Sciver-Brunt found the gap with a reverse sweep. Asha quickly answered with a wicket, but Tryon deserves praise for making a stunning diving catch at square leg.
An in-form Nicola Sciver-Brunt found the holes with ease, and Carey was all the company she needed. To move the run rate closer to seven, she pulled Asha for two fours with a consecutive six in between. Sciver-Brunt’s run of boundaries led to her 32-ball fifty, her 10th in the WPL and tied with Harmanpreet and Meg Lanning, when Carey hit Tryon for four fours in an over.
After being dismissed by Lanning’s one-handed effort earlier, Sciver-Brunt was given another chance when Deepti failed to hang onto a difficult return opportunity in the 15-run 18th over. In the final two overs, UPW retreated once again to hold MI to a subpar total.
One opener, Kiran Navgire, never got going while the other, Lanning, hogged the strike, making UPW’s powerplay quite similar to MI’s. She found boundaries, but she didn’t look like the person she usually was. When Sanskriti Gupta put one down at one point, Lanning also received a life on 16, but MI quickly sent her back. After both Lanning and Navgire were dismissed in five balls, Sciver-Brunt dealt UPW a double blow, leaving them on a difficult 45 for 2 in the seventh over.
Deol came out with intensity, almost as if the retired-out decision had ignited a fire within her. Coach Abhishek Nayar, who had summoned her back on Wednesday, was seen on camera as soon as she collected three fours from her first three deliveries using a cut, drive, and late dab to pierce various spaces on the off side. Deol continued to pursue MI as they continued to provide width on the off side, with No. 3 Phoebe Litchfield also in good nick at the other end.
In order to make the equation a reachable 64 from 48, she struck another run of three fours in four balls, all on the off side against Shabnim Ismail. She eventually grabbed her first boundary through leg when she pulled Kerr behind square after hitting eight fours in her first 20 balls, all on the off side, with timing and placement. But before Deol reached a 32-ball fifty and hit Gupta for three fours in her 15-run over, Kerr removed Litchfield for the eighth time in T20s to conclude the 15th over.
Even though the equation became a comfortable 29 off 24, Deol and Tryon kept their foot on the pedal for regular boundaries and finished things off with 11 balls to spare.